Merge pull request #24 from RobTrehy/20-passing-null-to-parameter-1-is-deprecated

Version 4.1.1 - Patch for null

Author: RobTrehy

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 All notable changes to `robtrehy/laravel-user-preferences` will be documented in this file.
 
+## 4.1.1 - 2025-11-09
+- Fix: Avoid deprecation warning in PHP 8.1+ when preferences column is null (#20)
+
 ## 4.1.0 - 2025-11-09
 - Added methods for working with preferences for any user instance or ID:
   - `getForUser()`

src/UserPreferences.php

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ function () use ($userId) {
         if ($data->isEmpty()) {
             self::$preferencesCache[$userId] = (object) config('user-preferences.defaults');
         } else {
-            $preferences = json_decode($data[0]->{config('user-preferences.database.column')});
+            $preferences = json_decode($data[0]->{config('user-preferences.database.column')} ?? '{}');
             if (json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
                 self::$preferencesCache[$userId] = (object) config('user-preferences.defaults');
             } else {